Neighbors fed up with OSU student housing development

E&M Constructors is demolishing the Wilson Wood Apartments in Corvallis to make way for new student housing. (Photo courtesy of E&M Constructors)

Project update: Harrison Apartments

The project team includes ZGF Architects, Samaritan Health Services and Project Ecological Development.

The building is proposed to replace the former Corvallis General Hospital structure at 2750 N.W. Harrison Blvd.

A Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold rating is being targeted.

In late December, developer Tom Cody of Project Ecological Development asked the Corvallis Planning Commission to postpone deliberations planned for Jan. 4 so that the project team could revise its plans in order to address neighbors’ concerns. That request was granted, and the team submitted its revisions on Jan. 10, according to Bob Richardson, associate planner working with the city. Significant changes include: a decrease in the number of units from 91 to 90; an increase in the number of parking spaces from 179 to 197; and an addition of an 8,240-square-foot, rooftop courtyard.

Demolition work is under way on Northwest 29th Street in Corvallis, to make way for yet another new housing project targeting the growing population of Oregon State University students and employees.

E&M Constructors earlier this month started tearing down the World War II-era Wilson Woods Apartments. The owners are planning to build a 43-unit complex – the Tyler Street Townhomes – on the site, which is nearly three acres.

Enrollment at OSU has increased from approximately 19,300 in 2006 to 25,000 this academic year, according to university spokesperson Todd Simmons. Rental housing is needed desperately in the area, he said. Developers are jumping on the opportunity; in the area abutting the campus, four major student housing developments are in the works.

The only project under construction is 7th Street Station, an 82-unit complex with 308 bedrooms. The largest project, still in early planning stages, is the Grove at Witham Oaks – a 296-unit complex with 792 bedrooms. And the Harrison Apartments could become the first housing development in Corvallis to achieve a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating; the project team recently submitted changes to its initial plans in response to an onslaught of neighborhood complaints.

Some residents are concerned that their neighborhood is changing too quickly, and without sufficient foresight. But developers say the proximity of the four projects makes sense; the goal is to provide renters convenient access to the university.

“(Tyler Street Townhomes) is about as close as you can get to OSU without being on the campus itself,” said John Seaders of MSS Engineering Inc., a former OSU professor who is working with developer Krishna Rao on the project. “It’s a very good location for the purpose of this project.”

Meanwhile, residents of the College Hill and Chintimini neighborhoods have voiced a range of objections about each project, as well as to the OSU building boom as a whole.

“It’s not just one project near where we live, but a whole bunch literally all around us,” said Dave Eckert, a member of the College Hill Neighborhood Association. “Only students will ever live there – and I love living near students – but these projects destroy the diversity of a neighborhood that now includes students, families, seniors, and some people with more money and less money; these projects are just creating segregated student ghettos.”

In the case of the Tyler Street Townhomes, some residents objected to the destruction of the Wilson Woods complex because of its historic value. It was built in 1942 for military officers at Camp Adair, and then was moved to Northwest 29th Street between Polk and Tyler avenues.

“Corvallis does need to grow to respond to the need for student housing, and I’m willing to live across the street from it,” said Brandon Trelstad, whose home faces the site of the planned Tyler Street Townhomes. “But I’m less willing to see nice old buildings torn down. There’s a loss of history, architecture and World War II-era construction.”

Trelstad said he would have preferred that the Wilson Woods complex gain density rather than be demolished.

But the case for preserving the building for historic reasons did not impress Seaders, who was born in the Netherlands.

“In Europe, we don’t start worrying about buildings until they’re 500 years old,” he said. “Here, almost everything that lasts over 50 years people want to consider historic buildings.”

Salvagers have come to the site to reclaim old oak floors, interior doors and other pieces of interest, according to Ed Stanton, the on-site general superintendent for E&M Constructors.

Demolition is expected to wrap up at the end of January, but the city of Corvallis has not yet granted building permits for the Tyler Street Townhomes. The development team submitted its application in November, but city planners found a “substantial number of issues” that needed to be addressed, according to associate planner Jared Voice. Paperwork was resubmitted recently, and Voice expects permits to be issued or another round of comments to come out by Jan. 23.

The $7 million development is expected to be ready for tenants in September.

One comment

I think that people need to get over themselves, this is a growing city and things are going to change no matter what. Seaders is right, just because it’s 50-60 years old doesn’t make it historic, I saw the buildings that were there before, and they were nothing special to look at. Some people don’t ever want things to change, but change is inevitable especially with city growth and development.